As I’ve mentioned in a few previous posts, I’m an avid genealogist. I’ve been doing it since a project in middle school, and I try to work on it a little bit here or there whenever I can. Not too long ago I posted about DNA testing my wife and I had a few years ago in the very early days of Genetic Genealogy. This weekend I worked on a little project I’ve been thinking about. I went through my genealogy database and approximated (to the very best of my ability) the “cultural” or “ethnic” origins of my great-great-great grandparents and distilled that down to my own rough genetic makeup.

For instance, if my grandmother was 100% Swedish and there was no other Swedish contribution to my ancestry, that would make me 25% Swedish (it gets cut in half with every generation - if there’s no other source of that specific makeup). But if my grandmother was 100% Swedish, and my other grandmother was 60% Swedish, that would make me 40% Swedish (25% from one, 15% from the other). Now, in real life genetics our DNA is scrambled with every single generation, meaning that there is a remote possibility that I would not inherit a single Swedish gene from either grandmother, making my DNA 0% Swedish. That still would not change, however, the fact that 60% of my ancestors came from Sweden. Does that make sense?

So the following information is entirely based upon the sources of my ancestry and does not reflect my genotype (a scientific word for my exact genetic makeup). I must also make the disclaimer that this information is only as good as my scientific approximations and the information I have in my genealogical database. Here goes:

Here’s the summary of my ancestry (rounded off to make the numbers look nicer):
- 61% English
- 16% Irish
- 13% French Canadian
- 6% Honduran (Spanish/Native American)
- 4% German
Here’s the summary of my wife’s ancestry (rounded again):
- 73% English
- 20% Irish
- 3% Dutch
- 3% Scottish
- 1% German

And thus, here is the E-man’s summary:
- 67% English
- 18% Irish
- 6% French Canadian
- 3% Honduran
- 3% German
- 1.5% Dutch
- 1.5% Scottish

What can I conclude from this experiment? That 86.5% of the E-man’s ancestors come from a few islands off the European mainland, and that the remaining 13.5% are a mixture of various sources. I had fun doing it, and maybe in a few decades when I’ve added a lot more information and individuals to my database I can give it another try and see how the results compare.

And finally, for that cousin of mine who is always wondering about his Irish heritage, I will tell you that you and I inherit 6.25% Irish heritage from our mothers, leaving us with about 3%. It’s probable that you have more Irish ancestors in your father’s side.